Standards-Based Interoperable Digital Twin in Industry 4.0 – A Pilot Demonstration

In the era of Industry 4.0, digital twins bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds, enabling early-detection of issues, increased production and efficiency, among other benefits. The development of digital twins begins early in the life cycle of a system/plant by using the data from various information systems as it passes through its life cycle, from as-designed to as-built to as-maintained state. These information systems which need to provide data for the construction of digital twins are mostly proprietary systems and thus act as stumbling blocks in the way of industry gaining benefits associated with industrial digital transformation. The industry should be able to develop and use standards-based adaptors to alleviate this issue. In this paper, we elaborate on this standards-based interoperable approach and its challenges and provide implementation details of an industry-led pilot where digital twin was established during the capital projects, then maintained, synchronized, and leveraged throughout the rest of the asset life cycle, including the brownfield information remediation. In the pilot, we have validated Open Industrial Interoperability Ecosystem (OIIE) specifications, published as part of ISO 18101, which brings multiple standards and specifications together in an interoperable fashion to enable a supplier neutral industrial digital ecosystem.